She is the smallest baby cardiac surgeon James Pollock has operated on and, holding her tiny heart in his hands, he literally brought Jade McWilliam back to life.

Eleven years on, that desperately ill 2lb 2oz newborn is an energetic girl who adores dancing, karate and playing with her little sister.

Last week, the consultant had an emotional reunion with the little girl he never forgot – despite carrying out 8000 lifesaving heart operations on babies and children across Scotland.

Jade, 11, travelled across Scotland with her parents to meet James to thank him properly and give him a special present – a chocolate-covered heart.

She told Scotland’s top cardiac surgeon: “Thank you for saving me, with all my heart. I’m pleased to meet you.”

James said: “It’s lovely to meet you, too, and I’m glad you are so well.”

Premature Jade was the smallest baby he operated on in his 31 years at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill in Glasgow.

James, who now works at the Royal Golden Jubilee Hospital’s heart centre in Clydebank, added: “I don’t usually operate on such small babies – but it was her only chance for survival.”

Jade’s mum Margaret, 37, said: “Mr Pollock told us Jade’s heart stopped in the middle of the operation and he had to give her heart massage.

“He also told us her heart was the size of a walnut. I looked at his hands, which are huge, like shovels, and I was amazed at his dexterity.

“We owe him more than words can describe. Jade wouldn’t be here today without him – he’s our angel, our knight in shining armour.”

James said: “I was really pleased when Jade wrote to ask to meet me. Many of my patients keep in touch and send me cards, letters and photographs, which I treasure.

“But I never usually get the chance to meet them after they leave my care, as cardiologists look after them.

“It’s wonderful to see Jade looking so healthy and well. She’s proof that the NHS cardiac system works well.”

Jade underwent open-heart surgery in March 2001 when she was only 15 days old, around the same time as the Yorkhill Children’s Foundation charity was set up.

Now Jade and her family, who are from Kintore, Aberdeenshire, help to raise funds to buy vital equipment for the hospital, home of Scotland’s paediatric heart surgery unit.

When Jade was born by Caesarean section after she went into foetal distress, she was 10 weeks premature.

Margaret said: “I had been pregnant with twins but lost one in the early stages.

“Then I had a bad pregnancy, suffering from pre-eclampsia. When the doctor at Aberdeen Royal Maternity Hospital told me my baby’s heartbeat was slow and causing them concern, I was sure I was going to lose her.”

After Jade was delivered she rapidly lost weight as she could only be fed a special vitamin-rich solution for premature babies through a tube.

Dad Ian, 42, said: “I couldn’t believe such a little scrap could survive. We were so anxious.”

Jade had been in intensive care for eight days and in the high-dependency unit for another eight days when her heartbeat became erratic and her body swelled up with fluids.

Margaret said: “Before that she looked well and I’d been able to hold her. I was shocked when the doctor told me that she’d had a heart attack.”

The couple were given half an hour to pack for an emergency transfer to Yorkhill.

Margaret flew in the air ambulance with Jade in an incubator and Ian drove.

Margaret said: “The doctors put Jade into an induced coma. I was crying all the time.

“Mr Pollock told me he was going to have to perform open-heart surgery. It was his duty to warn me of the risks – that she might end up with kidney failure, brain damage or die – and my instinct was to steal her and run as far away as possible.

“I couldn’t bring myself to sign the consent form and asked Ian to do it.

“But Mr Pollock is such a gentle man and I knew Jade couldn’t be in better hands. I’ll always be grateful to him for being so kind.”

Jade had coarctation of the aorta, a congenital condition which means narrowing of the large artery that takes blood out of the heart.

James patched an artery from Jade’s left arm into the heart, going in through the left-hand side of her chest in a seven-hour operation.

He said: “Usually the operation would have taken three to four hours but, because she was premature, her arteries were very small, which made everything much more difficult.” Jade’s mum, dad and grandparents waited in another room.

Ian, a production chemist who works offshore, said: “It was a very scary, worrying and tiring wait. We’d only had Jade in our life for two weeks but she had become so important to us.

“The parental bond is incredibly strong and it took me by surprise. I felt helpless.”

Margaret said: “I spent the whole time speaking to God, asking him to help her.